A study on postural optimization for bicycle exercise based on electromyography

Abstract

At present, commercially available bicycles have various sizes of frame to suit the user’s physical size, and the positions of both the saddle and the handlebars can be altered, but there is a lack of interest in the importance of the rider’s position when riding the bicycle in relation to their physical properties. Adjusting the rider’s position on the cycle on the basis of their physical properties before the exercise makes it possible to improve its efficiency. In this article, we develop an automatic saddle height-control system for cycle exercise, and present a useful method of determining cycling posture with the use of physical information. This system is composed of a computer, an electromyographic measurement device, and a fixed cycle trainer. In particular, in order to give the fixed cycle trainer a degree of freedom depending on the direction of the seat tube, we designed and built a device to control the height of the saddle. This article explains the structure of the system, introduces our data processing method, and discusses the results of our experiments. We then give an evaluation of the standard cycling posture for different settings of saddle height based on a quantitative evaluation method, principal component analysis.